Douglas Kamerow is a family doctor and specialist in preventive medicine and works as a chief scientist at RTI International, a large not-for-profit research company. He also teaches medical students and family medicine residents at Georgetown University as a clinical professor of family medicine. He is an associate editor of the BMJ, writing a column on health policy, called Yankee Doodling. He spent 20 years in the US Public Health Service, leading a range of clinical, health policy, and research activities and retiring as an Assistant Surgeon General in 2001. He had key leadership roles in the US Preventive Services Task Force, the Evidence-based Practice Centers, and other programs that have advanced evidence-based care. Dr Kamerow is a graduate of Harvard College, the University of Rochester Medical School, and Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. He is board-certified in family medicine and preventive medicine.

Competing Interests

Have you in the past five years accepted the following from an organisation that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication of papers in the BMJ?

Reimbursement for attending a symposium?
No

A fee for speaking?
No

A fee for organising education?
No

Funds for research?
My research has been funded by the Robert Wood Johnson foundation, Smith Family Foundation, and Partnership for Prevention. None has a financial interest in publishing in the BMJ.

Funds for a member of staff?
No

Fees for consulting?
My consulting has been sponsored by the Institute of Medicine and Partnership for Prevention. Neither has a financial interest in publishing in the BMJ.

Have you in the past five years been employed by any organisation that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication of papers in the BMJ?
I work for RTI, a not-for-profit research company. They don't stand to gain or lose financially from the publication of papers in the BMJ.

Do you hold any stocks or shares in an organisation?
Yes, but except for small holdings in General Motors and Apple Computer, they are all in mutual funds or under investment manager control, so I don't select the stocks.

Do you have any other competing financial interests?
No

I have no competing interests.